Nanowrimo

[The Judge]

Congratulations, both. And congratulations everyone who had a go whether or not you hit 50,000.

 

[Xelah]

Now that this is pretty much over and I can't dash anyone's hopes with disparaging words, I've got to say that I fail to see the point in nanowrimo. It's an exercise in futility and wastes a month of writing time. I'd rather write 15k-30k words a month and do it properly than exhaust myself on a vanity project.

a) Pretty much everyone that writes for this agrees that the work they produced is bad.
-- There's no telling what kind of bad habit you'd pick up writing at a rushed pace. Now this bad work is threatening future success.
-- You've exhausted your typing fingers for something no one is likely to read and will most likely never see the printing press and probably won't work on your main project for a few days... which brings me to point b.

b) You just lost a month of writing time. (plus a few days probably)
-- I can't really think of any subsections to add to this point, so I'll leave you with this: booga booga booga.

 

[Mouse]

Well I've not finished yet, just over 1000 words to go.

It's helped me realise that I can write every day and should be writing every day. I doubt I would've done much writing at all if not for this challenge.

The writing may be crap, but you can go back and edit, which is what I plan to do afterwards.

Also, I just like a challenge. So... there!

I don't feel like it's wasted my time at all.

 

[digs]

It's helped me realise that I can write every day and should be writing every day. I doubt I would've done much writing at all if not for this challenge.

That.

I think, having participated, I can refute you on all points Xelah. I don't feel my writing is unequivocally bad; it just needs planning, revision and editing. There's definitely some salvageable stuff in there. That alone, in my opinion, is worth it.

I don't feel I've picked up any bad habits. Conversely, I've learned the value of planning and foresight, to recognise flaws in my own writing, and, most importantly, that sitting down and writing x number of words per day isn't such a chore. Wasting time and thinking it's all too hard - that's a bad habit, and that's the frame of mind I'd still be in if I hadn't done this.

My typing fingers don't feel exhausted at all. In fact, while I was writing my entry, 3 or 4 other ideas spun off from it that I'm now really eager to explore. I'd also like to see if I can reconstruct what I wrote to make it clearer and develop a better story. The fact that no one will ever read this doesn't bother me at all. I write mostly for myself - as I strongly believe all good authors should.

I feel like I gained a month of writing time, rather than lost it. This may not be a story I'm incredibly proud of (although it may become one), but it helped me develop some basic skills and fundamental habits that I believe can only strengthen my future writing. And even if that time is 'lost', well, there's 12 more months to write better things in next year. And the year after that. And probably even the year after that.

I understand if you personally don't think it's worthwhile, but everyone who participates does so either for fun or achievement (or both), and more importantly they've freely chosen to do so. If we believed it was a waste of time, we wouldn't do it.

And don't even get me started on that 'booga booga booga' comment.

 

[Xelah]

I'm willing to accept that this might be helpful to others, but I stand by the booga booga booga.

 

[Mouse]

And I've finished! Spookily with the same number of words as you, digs. Though their verifier thing says I've done one more than I actually have.

My story's not finished, but that'll do for the mo!

 

[Ursa major]

Is that your new nickname, The Mo?


And well done everyone.

 

[Mouse]

The Mo.

And yes, well done everybody!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Woohoo Mouse and digs! Way to go!

I still have to finish mine after work tonight, but I had an idea last night and a brilliant flash today, so I can crank out another 1400 words in one of those directions and then get to changing it for the new start.

I second Mouse and digs about it not being a waste of time, at least for me. I don't consider what I've written to be crap, and I certainly plan on having it see the light of day after I've edited it. And like Mouse, I probably (no, definitely) wouldn't have written anything else in particular except a better 75-word story during that time, so no time lost there. I have shocked the living you-know-what out of myself this month and discovered that I can actually come up with a big enough idea for a while book and then actually write it! I have always been a short-story person. In truth, the reason I started this story at the beginning of the month was that I thought I could write short-story sized sections, chapters, and keep myself going on it that way. At the end, I have no idea where the chapters will actually break because it didn't come out that way when I started writing. So, before I finish, woohoo anyway. (My son said yesterday that if I fail, he'll make me a certificate anyway -- love the kid's confidence, there!)

 

[digs]

I have shocked the living you-know-what out of myself this month and discovered that I can actually come up with a big enough idea for a while book and then actually write it!

Me too! I was surprised that my story stretched to 50k words, but even more shocking was that 40k words or so were just introduction and I failed to ever actually get into the plot...

Even when I'm writing I'm still procrastinating from writing

 

[TheDustyZebra]

All right, I finally made it! I had to add a lot of extra words to get it to count enough, though, sheesh! I had 50,434 by Open Office's count, and when I pasted that in, it brought me up short at 49,830. I went back and typed another 282 words, figuring if it stole 600 from me I might need more than 170 to get there, and it took all 282 of those -- go figure. I have no idea which 600 words it didn't like.

Woohoo!

 

[digs]

I had exactly the same issue, TDZ. I know it was counting the asterisks I was using as dividers as words, but I didn't have 400 of them (or however many it said). It was a pretty massive blow reaching the end and realising I was actually still short.

 

[Mouse]

Yay! Well done, TDZ!

I didn't manage to write one story. My story I wanted to do only came to about 25,000 words, so the rest is short stories. Although three of those are like one massive long interlinked story anyway.

 

[Patrick Mahon]

Well done everyone! Great to see so many people getting positives out of this, whether they wrote 50,000 words or not.

I think NaNoWriMo is a great idea. Others may disagree, and that's up to them. But I've done it several times, got to 50k on some occasions, and not done so on others. However, I don't see any of the writing that I've done during NaNo as wasted. The novel I've just drafted out is sketchy, rough and needs a lot of work. But I've got the whole story idea down, from beginning to end, and can now work on it at a slower pace.

Particular congratulations go to The Mouse, TheDustyZebra, digs, and anyone else I've missed who made it all the way. Good on you!

And now I need to go and write a short story for my writing group.

 

[Tillane]

Well done, guys! Terrific that so many took part, I hope everyone got as much out of the month as I did, regardless of whether they hit the notional finish line or not.

I'm entirely with those who think nano is a Good Thing. As I said near the beginning of the thread, it's essentially a tool to teach writers the discipline of sitting down day in, day out and turning out words - you know, like professionals do. And on that point, I think it's worth pointing out that many (if not most) pros will turn out that kind of daily wordage, so if you've any designs on trying to do this thing for a living it's not just a helpful tool - it's essential.

 

[Mouse]

So has anybody done any writing since this? I haven't. Back to laziness!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Nope, only the 75-word challenge. I thought about signing up for NaNoFiMo ("finishing") but the idea of having to come up with another 1000 words a day for 31 days was too much to bear. I will get back to mine, though, I will, I will.

I did figure out, during the writing of the 75-worder, why my word count was so inflated. Open Office counts quotation marks as words! I wrote 75 words by hand, then when I typed them it said I had 80. What?? Counted again: nope, still 75. Hmm... and when I tried each line separately, voila! Silly thing.

 

[Mouse]

That's weird!

 

[Ursa major]

It isn't only weird, it should be thought of as a bug.



Depending on the version, Word's word count treats some things, M-dashes with spaces at both ends**, as words. If you use their grammar checker - you can also always click Ignore Rule as you go if you're not interested in Word's idiosyncratic view of grammar - you will get a more accurate count. I assume Open Office has a similar function.



** - I must admit, I've now changed my word-like M-dashes to N-dashes, and place M-dashes where I used to place ellipses. (No doubt a professional editor/proofreader would have pronblems with this, which would be a shame given the number of edits I had to do to make the changes across three WiPs.)

 

[ktabic]

Well, I managed 50k, then shoved the pads in the back of a cupboard and had to unwind for four days, but it's done. Since then, I've conquered the world twice, killed 3000+ zombies and visited the post-apocalyptic wasteland*. Mush easier then nano.

* Not my fault, the world was fine when I finished conquering it. Both times in fact.